Final 2013 Oscars predictions: Where did HitFix's experts land?

The 85th annual Academy Awards are right around the corner as Oscar weekend is ready to descend on Tinseltown and, indeed, the world stage. Is it smooth sailing for "Argo" and Daniel Day-Lewis? Did the tight races for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor yield surprises? What mysteries do the envelopes still hold? We'll know for sure next week and the Monday morning quarterbacking will be fascinating to behold, but in the meantime, it's last call on predictions.

Once again this year, HitFix's awards pundits have come together to help shed some light on this or that category with our final calls. Though perhaps no light is shed at all, as there are plenty of places where Gregory Ellwood, Guy Lodge and myself disagree. But that's been the story of the season, hasn't it? While a frontrunner for Best Picture may have emerged from the fire of phase two, a great many races are wide open. And it suggests a few promises may yet be in store.

For now, click through the video gallery below to soak up what we're thinking. I think I speak for all three of us when I say a number of these are built on shaky foundations of "logic" and confidence, but you have to put the pencil down sooner or later. And so we have. All three of us agree in 14 categories. In eight categories, two of us agree while one was a lone wolf. And in two categories, all three of us went in completely different directions.

Find out more below, and feel free to offer up your own predictions in all categories below. Good luck!

1. Barbara Streisand will sing The Way We Were during the In Memoriam montage. (Alt. She sings People or Evergreen.)2. Benh Zeitlin shocks and wins Best Director. (He shocks and wins Screenplay.)3. Seth McFarlane does well enough that all the haters do the backhanded "Hey, he wasn't horrible!" compliment. (Alt. It's a polarizing, some people loved him as host. Some people hated him as host.)4. The camera catches Tommy Lee Jones smiling or laughing at some point in the show. (Far more likely Alt. Seth makes a joke about Tommy Lee Jones and they cut to an unamused Jones.)5. If Chastain wins, she'll cry. If any of the other four win, they won't cry. (Alt. Okay, maybe Watts cries. Either way, Lawrence won't be as excited as you'd think she'd be if she wins.)6. Anne Hathaway will keep it together at first but break into tears near the end when she's thanking her mom/grandmother or whomever. (Alt. During her speech, they cut to Sally Field who has a "Thank God this is the last time I have to pretend i'm happy for Anne Hathaway!" look on her face.7. The Bond song medley is surprisingly cool and includes a few surprises like Sir Paul doing a little Live and Let Die and/or Carly Simon doing a little Nobody Does it Better. (Alt. Adele says "Blimey!" at some point during her speech when she wins.)8. We have at least four standing ovations for winners. Day-Lewis, De Niro or Tommy Lee Jones, Spielberg if he wins Director. Riva if she wins Actress. Argo if it wins Picture. (Alt. Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, and Christoph Waltz won't get standing ovations if they win.)9. If Tony Kushner wins, he casually mentions how Connecticut voted against abolishing slavery just to piss off Joe Courtney. (Alt. Whether it's Tarantino or Haneke winning Screenplay, it'll be hard to understand what they're talking about during their speech either way.)10. If Argo wins Picture, Affleck and Heslov will talk but Clooney will stand behind them and not say a word. (Alt. Whoever presents Best Picture announces it as, "Argo Fuck Yourself!")11. The closing musical number isn't as bad as everyone assumes it'll be. (Alt. They re-create the Rob Lowe/Snow White duet.)

1. It's The Way We Were. Bet on it.2. That would certainly shock Searchlight.3. I'm betting on the later. 4. Have you ever met Tommy Lee Jones?5. Lawrence balls. 6. Field has two Oscars. I think she's genuinely happy for Anne.7. Praying for McCarthy and Carly Simon!8. Jones doesn't get a standing O. Lee gets it for picture.9. I think he says something about Zero Dark Thirty to be honest.10. Agreed. Clooney will give Affleck the spotlight even though he was a VERY active producer.11. No one will remember the closing number and it better be under 3 min.

Yeah, i was on the fence whether Tommy Lee Jones gets a standing O or not. It might depend on the crowd. Some years they barely stand for anyone. Some years, everyone but the French get standing ovations.

I'm also going Lawrence, even though I really think Riva has a good chance (and hopefully).

I also think it's Spielberg and not Ang Lee. But my only reasoning is that I feel like Spie'berg should be getting 'something'. And though I know that actors love Ang Lee, I feel like they love Spielberg more and could tip the scale. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Ang Lee winning.

Animated has been getting to me as I finalized my predictions. I cannot see Wreck-it Ralph winning solely based on the Academy's usual demographics. It seems like Brave is much more up their alley, and is from the most prestigious animation house in the business. I felt the need to go with Brave b/c then if it wins I get the prediction right, but if it loses, one of the better films wins & I'll be happy about that.

I think that if Life of Pi is getting the most awards of the night by far, they might as well give it Best Picture too. Respected director, huge box office, and it's not suffering as much as other genre movies that tried before. That said...

Can't say I'm too excited for this year's awards. All front runners are good, but come on, is Argo the kind of movie people will sit down and watch once a year? Or even talk about it ever again? Doubt it.

I predict we're going to see a lot of snarky bloggers that will make declarations of "Worst Show...EVER!" if the show ends up being anything worse than a B-.I'm optimistic it'll be a better show than people think it will be mainly because I think Seth McFarlane will be better than people assume and I doubt the musical numbers will be any worse than one's we've had to sit through in the past. Remember people: It was just two years ago that James Franco decided to phone it in because he didn't like what the writers came up with and Anne Hathaway spent the whole show looking like Lucy Punch at the end of Being Julia when Annette Bening starts changing the lines during her big scene and part of the comedy of the night was Franco in a dress and every major category was predictable and the highlight of the whole night was Billy Crystal getting a standing O when he came out to present a pointless montage.

At worst, I think Lincoln ends up being this year's Pianist simply based on the fact that absolutely NO ONE was talking about Argo's Screenplay before "Poor Ben" got snubbed. Nevermind the fact he didn't write said screenplay. I keep going back to the fact that neither Ron Howard, Christopher Nolan or Spielberg (for Color Purple) got a consolation Best Picture Oscar. I think the Academy waits and gives Ben his own night in a couple of years ala The Coen Bros. Some picks:Best Picture: LincolnBest Director: Steven SpielbergBest Actor: Daniel Day LewisBest Actress: Jennifer LawrenceBest Supp Actor: Tommy Lee JonesBest Supp Actress: Anne HathawayBest Original Screenplay: AmourBest Adapted Screenplay: LincolnBest Editing: Argo